Pillars of Magic
by Amnesty
Summary: When a job is requested directly from a goddess herself Fairy Tail is up to the task to find and protect the four Elemental Pillars of Magic and one may closer than they think. Gray/Juvia, Gajeel/Levy.
1. The Pillars of Magic

A/N: I've just got into Fairy Tail and absolutely love it. I'm not caught up yet and I see this as more as a future fic than where I'm at right now so if something doesn't mesh up right I apologize! I really should be working on all the Naruto stories I've got right now but I'm honestly burned out on Naruto right now. In tme… Anyways, I hope you enjoy you enjoy my Gray/Juvia, Gajeel/Levy funfest!

The Pillars of Magic

By: Amnesty

Gray silently sat in the main hall of Fairy Tail, slowly nursing his glass of beer. It was exceptionally quiet today and so far this evening only two fights broke out and they finished nearly as soon as they started. He eyed around the room and watched as everyone was going about in their typical manner. Master was sitting at his usual spot on the bar counter next to where Mira, Lisanna, and Cana were blissfully chatting about whatever nonsense they chat about. Team Shadow Gear was at their normal table casually reading, well, Levy was reading while Jet and Dory sat idly next to her. Gray sighed and cupped his chin his hand.

"Man, why couldn't Natsu and the others have waited to leave for that job until I got back," he quietly fumed.

He was still a little irked that when he returned yesterday from a solo job he found out from Mira that Natsu, Happy, Lucy, Wendy, Charla, and Ezra all left on a big mission together that they said they would wait for him to get back for. He wasn't really mad at them for it as apparently the client suddenly put a rush on the job, but it still annoyed him when he found out. He was thinking about taking another quick solo job to pass the time until everything in the room became muffled and the air became thick. Everyone in the guild jumped to high alert and prepared for a sudden attack. The air was so potent with such a powerful magic it was almost numbing. Though whatever it was didn't feel threatening as much as it just gave a warm, tingling feeling it was always best to side on caution. No guild member spoke as they intently watched the entry way where the magic felt the strongest. Soon a bright light washed the room and when it died down there was a single woman standing before them.

She was stunningly beautiful with pale skin and shinning light blue eyes. Her hair was a lovely shade of dark blue and long, almost to her waist. Her hair was bound back in a loose, thick braid. Her clothes where a mixture of pastel colored fabrics that were draped around her, but hugging her body in the right places to accent her figure. She gave everyone a motherly smile and even though it was laced with sadness it helped ease some of the rigidness in the room. Gray spared a look at Master Markarov who was fixated on the being in front of him with his eyes wide and his mouth agape.

"Please, I don't have much time. I am the goddess Althena and although I am skirting many laws interacting with you directly like this I must ask for your assistance," she spoke with an enchanting voice. Placing her hand over her heart she looked at Master Markarov with grave sorrow. "Our world of magic is in grave danger! The Elemental Pillar of Earth has been discovered and seized by a mage named Darios Fermatta for the god Burma. It is only a matter of time before he finds the other three: Fire, Air, and Water. I've hidden them as long as I could but his tenacity is unwavering. It is only a matter of time before he discovers the others. You must find and protect the Pillars of Magic so magic itself will not be taken from this world."

A roar of confused and panicked whispers filled the room at the prospect of losing magic. They were all silenced when Master Markarov raised his hands. "Enough all of you! Goddess Althena, we will of course over all of our assistance to you. Where are these Pillars and Fairy Tail will find and protect them for you."

Goddess Althena smiled sadly and dropped her head, "Due to my own laws I am unable to provide the locations or details of the Pillars… All I can offer is that the Pillars are the embodiment of their natural element: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water."

"That's unfortunately not much to go on," he replied. "Could you at least give-"

The goddess's eyes shot open and then closed with a stream tears running down her cheeks. "I'm sorry, by my own laws I must leave at once. You cannot fail!"

With that she vanished instantly and left everyone in the guild in a shocked silence. A heartbeat later the doors behind where the goddess just stood opened and Juvia walked in, completely unaware of what just transpired. Her eyes widened in a misjudged surprise to see everyone staring at her so intently. Gajeel followed in right behind her and noticed the odd stares as well. He leaned in toward Juvia and glared.

"Oi, what did you do this time?"

Juvia blushed and punched Gajeel in the arm, rather pathetically. "Juvia did nothing!"

"Master," Mira said. "Do you think she is who she says she is? I've never felt anything like her before. It seems impossible. "

"She was telling the truth," he confirmed as he lowered his head in thought. "She is who she said she was."

Mira automatically took her master's word for it. "What do we do?"

Markarov grumbled and then turned toward the direction of Team Shadow Gear who were in a deep conversation about the current events. "Levy, come here please."

Levy jumped at her name but quickly hurried to her master's side. "Yes?"

"What do you know about these Pillars of Magic? Anything in their lore that could assist us on locating them?"

"I think I know just as much as everyone else. They are the foundation of all magic: Earh, Air, Fire, and Water. The four key elements , and mention of them is often linked to The One Magic. Nothing has ever mentioned them as anything more than a concept on how magic is formed though." Levy closed her eyes in thought. "I have books that mention them but they're very abstract and nothing has ever mentioned them as anything physical. I'll reread them and see if I can connect anything."

"Please do."

"Are you talking about the Elemental Pillars of Magic," Juvia asked as she and Gajeel slowly walked toward the conversing group.

"Ah, Juvia. Do you have something useful to add? You missed quite the show."

"Juiva can see that. Although she doesn't really know what's going on she does know a bit of what you're talking about."

Levy leaned in with perked curiosity, "You do?"

"Yes… Back when Juvia was a part of Phantom Lord Jose was fascinated with the Pillars of Magic. That was his bases for the creation of Phantom MK II. He wanted to combine a representation of the four Pillars of Magic so he could fire the Abyss Break. Juvia wasn't well informed of the technicalities of it but apparently when the four are combined as one it can be quite powerful and quite devastating."

"Do you think this is what this Darios is after," Cana asked "To use the actual Pillars as some sort of weapon?"

"I don't think so, but it's hard to say with the lack of information we have. You said Jose has research on this subject," Markarov asked to which Juvia nodded.

"Then we'll start there. Let's see… Levy, you will need to go and build on whatever you fine. Gajeel, Juvia, I know you two just got back and although I know it will be uncomfortable I want you two go as well."

Gajeel waved him off. "Jose is a pee on. I don't care whether I see that idiot again or not. He means nothing to me."

Gray, who had been watching from the sideline saw Juvia stiffen slightly and began to look uncomfortable. She never liked talking about Phantom Lord and he knew she didn't want to ever cross paths with Jose again. He knew she would take on Markarov's request but uncomfortable was an understatement. He watched as everyone explained what happened before they arrived and saw her emotions jump from astonishment to anxiety. He could tell that something about this was deeply troubling her and did the only thing he could think of to help at the moment.

"Master, I want to go too," Gray stated as approached. Juvia obviously brightened up substantially and began fawning.

"Gray-sama wants to go on a mission with Juvia!" She squealed as she wrapped her arms around his shirtless body. "This makes Juvia so happy."

"Yeah, well," he said as he played it off. "I might as well since my normal team took off without me and it would be kind of cool to brag to Natsu that I got to do a job for an actual goddess. So, can I go with them?"

Markarov smiled warmly at Gray and Juvia, with a snickering Cana and Mira behind him. "Yeah, sure."

Gajeel and Levy shared a smile at the prospect of fighting side by side again to which Jet and Dory gave a look of horror. On the other hand Juvia continued to latch to an increasingly annoyed Gray.

"Juvia, will you let go already. I need to go pack!"

"Juvia will help you!"

"I don't need your help."

"Gray-sama!"

"Will you idiots stop already," Gajeel cut in. "If we don't leave soon we'll have to wait until the train in the morning.

"Hey Cana," Mira said as she leaned in. "20,000 jewels they all "hook up" by the end."

"Hah, with those idiot boys who can't see a good thing when its spoon fed to them? You're on," Cana replied with a handshake. "Another 20,000 jewels for me," she said with smirk.

"I'm gonna win someday," Mira stated with a wistful smile as she watched the four leave the guild, bickering the whole way.

-o-

End Notes: Please read and review! And 10 points to whoever knows where I hack stole the goddess from.


	2. Jose Porla

A/N: Hello, and first off I'd like to thank all those reviews. And importantly I did go back and change a few things in the first chapter. Mostly I just changed it to Gray-sama, raised the bet amount, and plot specific instead of Fire being the first element the baddies have I changed it to Earth. Fire is too overdone and the first element taken is going to have a bigger spot in the story so… Changed my mind! My bad.

It didn't help that I only had a general idea for this story and was working it out as I went. But I know have a start to finish plan so hopefully the rest will go smoothly. Well I guess that's it and I hope you enjoy ;)

Pillars of Magic

By: Amnesty

Levy sunk into her seat on the midnight train that rode further away from Magnolia. It was very late at night and it seemed that everyone was asleep in their car was asleep except her. She had her overhead light on as she quietly read through her small collection of books she brought with her that mentioned anything about the Pillars of Magic. She grumbled in annoyance as none of her books seemed to offer much insight as they were referenced as more of a philosophical thought than an actual _thing_ that could be found.

Looking into the darkness outside the window Levy reminisced about the Goddess Althena and her short visit. She knew that gods and goddesses existed but so little was really known about them. Most of the fables about them are word-of-mouth encounters or stories of their inner workings that varied from region to region with very little continuity. There were many books on them but for the most part all that is known is that they are the lifeblood of the earth and their mere existence is the cause of… everything. They weren't rulers of any kind and very _very _rarely involve themselves with humans. They were… Sort of like celestial spirits, but much more powerful and much more elusive. They live on a different plane where they conduct their own business with very little care about we do with our lives. Some people to choose to worship them but it has been made clear that it doesn't make a difference.

She turned to her two sleeping friends who were sitting across the table. Gray was slouched back in his seat with his head tilted backwards, mouth slight agape. Next to him sat Juvia who was taking over most of the seat with her legs tucked under her and leaning against Gray's side, using him as a pillow. She looked very serene and had a small, contented smile across her face.

_"Probably dreaming about Gray," _Levy thought with a small chuckle.

Beside her was Gajeel who sat with his arms crossed and head lowered. She silently watched as his chest rose and fell as he took deep even breaths until she began to feel her cheeks heat up. She quickly turned to her book pile and began to leaf through them trying to find another one to read. After settling on one she leaned back and opened the book to begin to read before Gajeel reached over and turned off her overhead light.

"Gajeel," Levy warned as she eyed him with annoyance.

"Go to sleep Shorty," he muttered without even cracking an eye and going back to his previous position.

_"Has he been awake this whole time,"_ Levy questioned inwardly.

She sighed in defeat, thinking the light must have been keeping him up. She pushed her glasses to the top of her head and leaned over onto the table to rest her head on her folded arms. After a few minutes she decided she wasn't comfortable and readjusted herself by sitting back in her seat and leaning against the window. After quickly realizing that was even more uncomfortable she began to readjust herself again.

"Honestly," Gajeel growled before reaching his long arms around Levy and pulling her close to him.

Levy's face burned bright as she was tightly pressed against Gajeel's chest. "Ga-gajeel," Levy stammered. "I can't sleep like this!"

"Shhh"

Levy placed her free hand over her chest and felt her heart pounding so fast she could feel it resound in her head. Admittedly this was much more comfortable than the other positions she tried to sleep in but her mind was buzzing about so fast she couldn't relax at all. After exhaling the breath she didn't realize she was holding she decided to just settle in and try her best to go to sleep. She closed her eyes and concentrated on her quickly beating heart to try and soother herself to sleep but soon realized that it wasn't her heart that was resounding in her head but Gajeel's.

She knew why her heart was beating so fast, but why was Gajeel's? Although she doubted it was possible she felt her whole body getting hotter and cursed herself for not being able to control it better. She thought about pulling away so she wouldn't feel this way but she also noted that she liked being this close to Gajeel. She knew she would never be able to sleep like this. She couldn't stop thinking. This happened more times she could count where she kept herself up all night just thing about random things. But this was a very specific topic that she could think about easily until dawn and then some. Gajeel had his arm wrapped around her and he was so warm and he was solid but so comfortable to lean against. She could hear his heart beat and he was warm and-

Levy's eyes fluttered open as she slowly began to wake up. The car they were in was bright due to the sunlight that was pouring though their window. Everything looked blurry for a bit as her eyes focused on what was around her, specifically the figure sitting in front of her. Juvia was sitting across from her and was leaning on the table with her face cupped in her slender hands. As soon as Levy's eyes locked with hers a cat like grin spread across Juvia's face. Levy knew she was still pressed against a still sleeping Gajeel with his arm hung over her shoulder and knew what it must have looked like. She quickly pushed herself away and began to wave her arms in front of herself as she tried to explain.

"It's… It's not what it looks like!"

"Uh-huh."

"Really," Levy began to blush more. "I had a hard time getting comfortable so… Gajeel let me sleep against him."

"Well, just to let you know Gajee-kun was _very _comfortable with you when Gray-sama and Juvia woke up."

"What do you mean," Levy asked wearily.

Juvia sat straight and with a small blush closed her eyes. "Let's just say… Gray-sama was kind enough to move his 'wondering' hand for you."

Levy's face darkened as she repeated the other woman's words. "Wondering… hand?"

"You know," Juvia said while cupping her breast and nodding.

"Gajeel," Levy growled as she grabbed her yellow purse off the table and swung it at the Iron Dragon Slayer's head.

Gajeel woke with a start as he felt the sudden impact of Levy's hit. It wasn't hard enough to really hurt him but since he wasn't prepared for the attack it was enough to send him into the aisle. He turned to a furious Levy with a shocked look that quickly turned into annoyance.

"What they hell was that for," he yelled.

"Oh, you know what that was for you pervert," she yelled back as she swung her purse at him again, which Gajeel easily blocked.

Juvia nervously interjected, feeling guilty for unintentionally getting her good friend in trouble by the fellow blunette. "But Levy, Juvia doesn't think he meant it. He was asleep too!"

"Don't care!"

"Meant to do what? How am I a pervert," Gajeel questioned as he continued to block Levy's ongoing attacks. "Juvia, what did you say to her?

"Gajeel-kun, Juvia's so sorry! Please don't be mad at her!"

"Hey, why are you three being so noisy. I could hear you guys yelling all the way in the breakfast car." Gray said as he walked down the aisle toward them with a tray of fruit and bagels for everyone.

He stopped and took in the scene of the three Fairy Tail mages. Gajeel was sprawled out in the middle of the aisle and was holding up his arms to guard himself from a beet red Levy who was still swinging away with her small purse. Juvia on the other hand was now turned toward him with a heavy stream of tears that were beginning to puddle around her. I flash of angry ran down his spine at the sight of Juvia upset and he turned to Gajeel.

"What did you do to these two," he accused angrily.

Gajeel opened his mouth, about to defend himself before Juvia latched her arms around Gray's chest. "It wasn't Gajeel-kun. This is all Juvia's fault! I told Levy that when we woke up he was unconsciously groping her-"

"I was what!?"

"-and that's why they're fighting now."

Gray looked down at the distressed water mage and patted her on the back sympathetically. "It's not your fault Juvia. Levy's clearly over reacting to-"Gray suddenly stopped as he saw the script mage freeze and turned to shoot him a death glare that shook him to his core, making him drop the tray he was holding. He thought Ezra was the only person that could scare him that much with just a look.

"Over… Reacting," she questioned him in a low, gravelly voice.

"What… What I meant to say is that Gajeel is clearly in the wrong and he deserves anything that you do to him!"

"Don't back me up then take it back suddenly," Gajeel yelled in annoyance.

Gray looked down at Juvia who currently had her face buried in his now wet bare chest. Where did his shirt go? He knew he had it on a minute ago… But that didn't matter as Juvia was now looking up at him with a smile on her face and was now laughing at the current situation. Gray smiled down at her and began to chuckle along with her as her laughter seemed to be contagious. Levy stopped her on slot and watched the two in with a smile on her face and began to giggle softly before transcending into a full laugh as well. Gajeel looked at his three teammates like they were crazy before smiling and letting out only one of his short, signature laughs.

The other people in the car watched the crazy people in rapt attention and began to talk amongst themselves now the scene seemed to be finished.

"Those kids are crazy," one person said.

"Dang it! My carry on is wet now," said another.

"Mommy, why isn't that man wearing pants," a small child asked her mother,

"Cover your eyes sweetie," her mother replied with a blush.

"You cover your eyes too," the father complained to his wife.

At the end of the car sat alone passenger who was watching the scene as well with a serious expression on his face. He tilted his fedora further down his head to mask his eyes with the brim and pulled out a small notebook from the inner pocket of his grey suite. Flipping it open he read down a list of names that were written out in a messy hand. Many of the names were marked out with a line through them and he stopped on the one that read 'Juvia Lockster' and put a check mark beside it. He closed the book and slid it back into his inner pocket and turned to the window to watch the scenery pass by.

* * *

The four walked down the cobblestone road of the small village that, according to Master, Jose was currently living. Levy lead the way, following the directions on a small paper with Jose's current address. Walking closely beside her was Gajeel who was now back in Levy's good graces- much to his relief. He hated when that tiny girl was mad at him.

Following shortly behind them Juvia and Gray were walking side by side. Gray was just idly walking forward while Juvia was seemingly lost in thought. Noticing that they were starting fall further behind Gray placed a hand on the center part of Juvia's back and began to urge her to go faster.

"Come on Juvia. We're falling behind."

Juvia's face erupted in a bright flush and her eyes widened by the sudden contact. "S-sorry Gray-sama. Juvia wasn't paying attention."

"That's fine, just pick up the pace a bit."

"Okay," she replied as she began to walk faster with him.

"What are you thinking so hard about," he asked curiously.

"Oh… You know, things."

Gray waited a moment for her to continue but when she didn't seem to herself he probed for more information. "Things like?"

"Well, a lot of things really. This mission, Jose, Phantom Lord, this Darios Fermatta, Burma, missing the Goddess Althena's visit, you…."

"Ahh… That is a lot of things," Gray agreed.

Juvia tilted her head toward to look to the man next to her and smiled whimsically. "What was she like?"

"The goddess?"

"Mmhm."

"Well," Gray began as he tried to search for words. "It's hard to explain. When she arrived it seem like the world stopped around her. And being in the room with her was… numbing almost, because of all the magic that I felt radiating off of her. But it wasn't the normal magic I feel from other mages. It was… rejuvenating. After she left it felt like I just finished a good night's sleep. She was hard to look at too. I mean, I could see her and make out her features and everything but I couldn't focus on her. It was kind of like trying to look at something that wasn't really there. I could still tell that she was beyond beautiful though as to be expected of a goddess… She reminded me of you a lot actually." Gray winced as his last sentence passed his lips but knew it was too late to take them back. He willed himself to look in her direction and moaned when he confirmed that she was lost in one of her fantasy modes.

_A glistening mist surrounded both Gray and Juvia as they stood alone together in a world of their own, built by the unconditional and returned love they both shared for each other. Gray kneeled before a blushing Juvia on one knee, topless and wearing only dark dress pants and bowtie. With her hands in his he looked up into Juvia's sparking eyes lovingly. _

_ 'Juvia, your beauty rivals, no, surpasses that of even the gods. Never before have I laid my eyes on anything as exquisite as you. _

_ 'Gray-sama…'_

_ 'Juvia, I can't spend another day without you by my side. Stay with me… forever.'_

_ 'Oh Gray-sama…" _

"We're here," Levy said, popping Juvia out of her fantasy.

She looked ahead and saw a small apartment complex that Levy was pointing at. It seemed rather low end as the plaster on the siding had gaps and the lawn was riddled with tall weeds. There were a few rough looking youngsters hanging out in the front that glared at them while they approached, but didn't seem to be causing any trouble.

"Well his life went to shit," Gajeel commented

"Well it has almost been ten years. I'm sure it's hard to find work when you've become black listed and under surveillance by the magic council," Juvia added.

"Whatever. Let's just get this over with," Gajeel said as he yanked the piece of paper out Levy's hands. "Let's see which apartment his holing up in…"

"Apartment B12," Levy said in annoyance. "And you didn't have to grab the paper out of my hands. You could have asked."

Gajeel turned and waved the paper in front Levy's face and smiled. "But you make the cutest face when I annoy you."

Levy face burst with color and she looked at him with shock. "Wh-what?"

Juvia covered her mouth in a shared sense of shock. "To just go out and say it like that…"

Gajeel coughed and put the piece of paper in his pocket before starting to head inside. "Let's just… get this over with."

They all headed up the stairway to the second floor where Jose's apartment was located. Gajeel quickly took point and began pounding on the door. After waiting a minute or two Gajeel began to pound on the door again. "Oi, Jose, open your damn door!"

"Maybe he's not home," Levy said with a shrug.

"No he's home. I can smell 'im," Gajeel said as his patience ran dry and just kicked the door down.

"What the hell," yelled a voice from inside. "What do you think… Gajeel?"

Gajeel walked inside the cramped apartment and saw Jose standing in the middle of his living room. To Gajeel it hadn't been that long since he's seen him last but for Jose many years have passed and they had not been kind. His face sagged with deeper wrinkles and his hair and beard was disheveled and unkempt. He gained a small amount of weight as well and he could easily make out his drinker's gut that he was hiding under the house robe he was wearing.

Gray, Levy, and Juvia followed suite and entered as well since common courtesy went out the window via Gajeel.

"Ah, and Juvia too? Finally got tired of those Fairy Tail fools and decided to crawl back to me? And with two others? Well… That's too bad. I've sense moved on."

"They're not here to come work for you idiot," Gray spat. He'd forgotten how much he disliked this man.

"Oh?"

"We just came here for the information you have on the Pillars of Magic," Juvia said, frowning deeply.

"And why would I give my years of hard research to you?"

"Because if you don't we'll lose magic here all together," Gray countered. "So give us whatever research you have so we can do our jobs."

"Yeah… right. And I should believe or help you… Why?"

"It's true Jose," Juvia said. "A goddess came-"

Juvia was cut off by rampant laughter from Jose who was nearly double over. "A goddess? I never took you as a liar Juvia but I know that's not true."

"It… It is true. Juvia wouldn't lie."

"The gods don't just 'come' to this plane Juvia. They don't associate themselves with us. At all. Period."

"Well this one did, and she wants us to find these Pillars of Magic for her," Gray said, crossing his arms. "We know you've done a good deal of research on them and we want to see what you've got."

Jose shook his head in disbelief. "The Pillars of Magic? They don't exist in this world. Like the gods they affect our world from their home plane. There's no reason for them to be there."

Levy thought for a moment. "She did say that she hid them. They may have been in their world but at some point she moved them to ours. But why would she do that? What is the god Burma and this Darios Fermatta after?"

"Well, I have no clue who this Burma is but I do know Darios."

"You do," asked Levy.

"Yeah, he came by about… Jeez four, five years ago? He was also looking for information on the Pillars of Magic."

"You didn't give him anything, did you," Gray asked.

"Of course I did! Unlike you disrespectful brats he actually offered me something other than just busting, literally, in here and demanding my life's work."

Gray sighed. "What do you want?"

"Well… It appears that my research is in much higher demand than it once was… So, how does 50,000,000 jewels?"

Everyone's eyes bulged out a bit in shock over the outrageous amount.

"We don't have that kind of money," Gray shouted.

"I say we just beat him until he gives us what we want," Gajeel interjected raising a metal fist.

Jose backed away a bit nervously but stopped when he saw the little blunette begin to chide him. "We're not thugs Gajeel! We can't do that."

Gajeel made a 'tsch' sound before crossing his arms and turning away. "Well that's the limit of my negotiating skills."

"Jose, we don't have that-" Juvia began.

"Then I guess it's time for you leave. Gajeel, Juvia… Whoever you two are. Good day. I'd show you to the door but it's currently out of commission."

Everyone stood there for a moment in an intense staring battle before Gray finally caved. "Fine. We can't force you to cooperate. We'll find the answers we need elsewhere." Gray turned and walked out the doorway. "Let's go guys. We've wasted enough time."

Levy sighed and went out the door as well with an annoyed Gajeel in tow. Juvia hesitated as everyone left, leaving her alone with Jose.

"I thought I asked you to leave."

"Juvia knows. She just wanted to ask… How are you?

"It's a little late for pleasantries Juvia," Jose spat.

"Juvia knows and she's sorry we just barged in like we did unannounced. It was very rude. But Juvia does really want to know how you're doing."

"Buttering me up isn't going to make me help you."

"That's not it… Can we talk? About other things?"

"Juvia," Gray said as came back in when he realized Juvia wasn't following. "We're leaving."

"Can we spare fifteen more minutes Gray-sama. Juvia wants to talk to Jose for a little bit in private."

"What could you possible want to say to this man," Gray asked in astonishment.

"Gray-sama, please."

Gray was honestly taken back by her request and honestly had no clue what was going through her head. She wants to talk to him? She didn't even want to come see him and now she wants to sit down and have a chat- alone?!

"I'm not leaving you alone with him."

"That's fine. I actually want Gajeel-kun to join us anyway."

"I never said you could stay Rain Woman," Jose interjected.

"And why are we still in this hell hole," Gajeel asked as he strode back in.

"Perfect," Juvia sung as she grabbed Gajeel by the arm and drug him further inside. She turned back toward Gray. "After we're finished talking we'll meet you and Levy outside, okay?"

"Juvia," asked Gajeel in an annoyed tone. "What are you trying to drag me into?"

"We're all past due for a catch up Gajeel-kun."

"What would I want to do that for?"

Gray sighed. It was obvious Juvia was determined to make this happen by the look she was giving Gajeel. Jose seemed to have just given up as he just threw up his arms and sat on his musty couch.

"I'll be waiting outside with Levy. If he tries anything just shout out the window and I'll be right up."

"I think we can handle ourselves Iceboy," Gajeel sneered.

Gray just rolled his eyes and after shooting Juvia a concerned look head out the door where he saw Levy waiting. After they left Gajeel, Juvia, and Jose all stood there in an awkward silence while shifting their eyes between each other.

"Would anyone like some tea," Juvia asked.

"The pipes are busted. You can't drink this water," Jose stated.

Juvia cocked an eyebrow and gave Jose a _'really?'_ expression.

"Right. Sorry, it's been a while. I'll get us some cups," he said as he went to kitchen and fetched three cups. "Go ahead and have a seat."

"Thank you," Juvia said as she sat down on the couch and when she noticed Gajeel wasn't following suite motioned for him to sit on a nearby wooden stool as well.

He rolled his eyes but did as he was told, mentally cursing himself for allowing not one but two blunettes to push him around like they did. Juvia has become like a sister to him since they joined Fairy Tail and Levy, well, she had her special place too.

Jose came back and sat down three mugs and a kettle on the coffee table. "Do you mind?"

"Not at all," Juvia replied as she filled the kettle with boiling water with a wave of her hand.

"Ah, it's already hot. You used to not be able to actively control the temperature of your water."

Juvia placed of bag of Earl Grey tea she got from her bag in the kettle and began to let it steep.

"A lot has changed," she said.

"Yes… Yes it has. So, what do you want to talk about? Want to gloat about how well you're doing in Fair Tail? Or hear about how I can't hold a job now that I'm forbidden from any magic work? Or how about how much you hate me for pitting you against your precious guild."

"Juvia doesn't hate you! And Juvia knows Gajeel doesn't either!"

"Right," Jose said, disbelieving.

Juvia sighed and began to pour out three servings of tea. She opened up a pocket on her bag and pulled out a smile vile of iron shavings and put a pinch into what would be Gajeel's cup. The three sat in another bout of awkward silence as they began to drink their tea.

"The two of you have become… Very close," Jose said between sips.

"Yes we have," Juvia agreed with a smile. "We do a lot of solo missions but when we need an extra pair of hands we typically team up with each other. Gajeel, Lily, and Juvia make a great team!"

"Lily? Was that the other blunette that was just here?"

"Oh, no. That's Levy. She is a good friend though. Lily is an Exceed."

"Those… talking cat things? Interesting… Wasn't that Levy girl apart of that group that you put in the hospital for a good few days Gajeel?"

Gajeel sputtered on his tea and sat his cup down harshly on the coffee table. "Yeah, she was," he said while trying to hide the look of guilt on his face.

"I'm surprised she lets you near her after what you did to her and her friends."

"Right…"

"But she doesn't hold a grudge at all," Juvia interjected, feeling her friend's discomfort. "That's Fairy Tail though. The moment we joined it was like a fresh slate for all of us. Everyone treats us like we're a part of the family."

"Well isn't that just special."

"Listen Jose, the reason Juvia wanted to talk with you was… Everything in Phantom Lord ended so suddenly and my life just flipped in an entirely new direction. Because of this… Juvia never took the time to come and thank you properly."

"Thank you," both Gajeel and Jose yelled in unison.

Juvia simply nodded.

"Why would you thank me? I only asked you to join so I could use you to power my Phantom MK II!"

"Juvia knows this but it was because of that she was able to meet Gajeel-kun and all the wonderful people at Fairy Tail. And even though Juvia knows you were just using her for once Juvia felt like she was needed and that she could contribute to something bigger than herself. Before that… Juvia never felt that way, not once. You seeking her out and asking her to join Phantom Lord was the best thing that had happened to Juvia up until that point and it's because of you that Juvia is where she is today. So," Juvia stood up and bowed respectively toward Jose. "Jose Porla. Thank you, for everything."

Jose stared at Juvia with wide eyes and his mouth wide open as he tried to comprehend everything she had just said. Gajeel was also gawking at her. These were things they've talked about before but he never thought Juvia was holding all of this in her.

'_Juvia,' _Gajeel thought with a smile. _'You really are full of surprises…'_

"Well," Juvia stated as she straightened her skirt. "I suppose that's all I have to say. I'm sorry for taking up so much of your time. We'll be leaving now."

"Juvia," Jose said with his head lowered, staring at the ground. "Sit back down."

Juvia looked at him in confusion but did as he asked.

"It is true that the only reason I asked you to join my guild was to use your elemental magic to help power my machine but… You were a part of Phantom Lord. I loved that guild and… I loved everyone in it. I just… I just wanted to show everyone how great I knew we all were. That we were the most powerful guild there ever was and ever would be. When I lost Phantom Lord I didn't expect anyone to stick around with me but when I found out the two of you joined those Fairy Tail," Jose grew tense with anger then sighed. "You have no idea how betrayed I felt."

"Juvia… Juvia had no idea," she said as she started to cry freely. "She's so selfish. Not once did she consider your feelings about joining Fairy Tail. She's so sorry!"

"Don't be sorry. The two of you… Even though I still hate Fairy Tail with every fiber in my body, you made a good decision… I went to the Grand Magic Games last year. I couldn't afford a ticket but just being around the arena brought back old memories before my life turned out the way it is now. Plus," he added with a smile. "I liked listening to Fairy Tail coming in last every year. But it was there that I first saw the two of you there with your new guild mates. It was the first time I've seen the both of you since everything happened.

You both seemed so happy. You were never that happy in Phantom Lord and I _hated_ the two of you for it. I never thought I would see you," he glanced at Gajeel," laugh about anything besides pain and destruction and I never even seen you," he turned to Juvia," smile before- ever. But there you were, all smiles and laughter. I was so focused on us being the strongest guild I lost track of what was most important. I wish, I could have seen the two of you like that in my guild and maybe if I wasn't so blind you could have been… Maybe that was the key we lacked."

"You wanted to be the strongest. It's was a respectable goal," Gajeel added, finally joining in the conversation. He then gave the older man a lop-sided grin. "Even if you did go a bit off the rails at the end."

Jose returned Gajeel's smile before frowning in annoyance. "Damn it. This is another reason I hate Fairy Tail mages," he growled and lifted a hand in the air and materialized a large journal. "They're always spouting out the corniest friendship speeches and damn it all they somehow always work!" He slammed down the journal. "There's my research journal. It's mostly about creating the Phantom MK II but you'll find plenty of information on the Pillars of Magic you won't find anywhere else."

Juvia stared wide eyed at Jose as he sat back and leaned back on his couch.

"Jose, Juvia didn't stay behind to try and talk you into giving us the book."

"I know that," Jose spat. "But… It's the least I could do for the two of you."

Gray and Levy stood waiting outside on the road while Gajeel and Levy talked to Jose in his apartment. Levy stood in one spot watching the window of his apartment while Gray occupied himself by pacing back and forth.

"They've been up there for too long," Gray said suddenly. "I'm going back up there."

"I don't hear any fighting. I'm sure they're just still talking," Levy reassured.

Gray opened his mouth to reply but stopped when he saw his guild mates and Jose leave the building. "There they are. It's about time."

"Is Gajeel holding a book," Levy asked as she saw that he was indeed holding a giant tomb under his arm.

Levy was about to wave them over to where they were standing until they did something that made both her and Gray stare at them, dumbstruck. Juvia turned and gave Jose a warm embrace and was actually smiling while doing so followed by Gajeel shaking his hand with his free arm and a smile too.

"What the hell happened up there," shouted Gray and Levy in unison as Gajeel and Juvia drew closer.

"Let's say we had a much overdue chat," Juvia stated.

"Is that." Gray questioned while pointing to the book Gajeel was carrying.

"It is," Gajeel stated with a cocky grin as he showed him the research journal.

"I'll take that," Levy said as she quickly yanked the book out of Gajeel's hands.

"Hey short stack, don't just rip things from my hands like that!"

"Sorry Gajeel. I'm reading so I can't really hear you right now," Levy replied as she started to flip through the book with a teasing smile on her face.

"How does that keep you from hearing me!?"

Gray smiled at Juvia's amusement at her bickering friends. "Ready to go? We've still got a lot of work ahead of us."

Juvia turned toward him and nodded with a smile on her face. "She is."

"Hey Juvia," she heard behind her. She and Gray turned to see Jose still standing on the apartment complex steps. "Seeing you in the sunlight… It really suites you."


	3. Back Alley Fight

A/N: I had a bit of a hard time with this chapter. I was really anxious about it due to the fight scene but after I got into it I actually had a lot of fun writing it! I also realized that I enjoy torturing Gajeel… Like. A lot. I truthfully had the hardest time introducing the enemies. I suck and describing characters so I avoid OC's like the plague but the villains are needed. So please look over my horrid descriptions and enjoy none the less! Thanks Bye.

By the way: Potres= Earthquake=Croatian

Pillars of Magic

By: Amnesty

He'd been trailing them for a while now. Even before they left for their mission to find the four Pillars of Magic. He was honestly surprised to find out that their goals were now overlapping with his in a way. Though for completely opposite end goals. He wasn't sure who tipped them off but they obviously had no clue what they were looking for and were years behind Darios when it came to answers.

_"But"' _he thought as he sipped on his tea while watching them having lunch on an outside patio of a quaint café. _"These are Fairy Tail mages. It would be unwise to underestimate them… I should take this slow."_

He cupped his chin with his hands as he thought to himself for a moment about the current situation. The young man had a round, delicate face that was very feminine with light grey eyes. His hair was a dirty blonde color that was cut short in a stylish fashion. After putting money down on the table for his drink he grabbed his fedora and gray coat that was hanging on the chair. He left the small café and began to walk down the streets a way before tucking into an empty alleyway. Once he made sure no one was around he materialized a glassy orb and held it in front of him with one hand. The orb began to shine brightly for a moment before a face appeared inside. It was another man who appeared to only be a few years older than he was. He had sandy brown hair and dark green eyes that were almost black in color. His face was contorted in a frown, masking his handsome features, as he peered back at the younger man.

"Eh? Potres? Where's Darios? I need to speak with him," The fedora clad man stated.

"Darios is sleeping. What do you need Hiro?"

"I need to update him. I'm not completely certain why but four Fairy Tail mages are now also looking for the four pillars. One of them, Juvia Lockster, is even on the list of water mages we have… Does that name sound familiar to you?"

"Well yeah," he replied honestly. "She was one of the winners of the Grand Magic Games. She's been in the Sorcerer's Weekly a few times too. Quite a powerful water mage. I wasn't surprised to find her name on the list."

"No, I mean," Hiro sighed. "Nevermind."

"Is that all you wanted to report?"

"Ah, well. Just tell him I'm going to be trailing them for a bit longer to gather more data and I'll keep him updated."

"Okay… Hey, Potres thinks you have company," he stated grimly before his image disappeared.

"What," Hiro questioned as he turned to see Gajeel, Gray, Levy, and Juvia standing in the entrance of the alleyway, looking menacing.

"Looks like you were right Gajeel. We were being followed," Gray stated smugly.

"Of course I was," Gajeel responded with confidence.

"You knew? How long have you known I've been trailing you?"

"Since the train station in Magnolia," Gajeel explained. "I noticed that your scent kept popping up so it wasn't hard to figure out."

"Now, I see that you work for Darios," Levy stated as she crossed her arms, tying her best to look intimidating. "Care to tell us why he has you following us?"

"You look like a smart girl," Hiro stated as he began to summon an orb. "I'm sure you'll figure it out," he added a smile. "But not before it's too late."

"Here we go," yelled Gray as he and Gajeel rushed forward to attack with a fist full of iron and ice.

"Barrier Prison," Hiro yelled quickly as the orb in his hand shined brightly momentarily before dissipating.

Gajeel and Gray were still rushing forward at full force until they ran into an invisible barrier that slammed them to a stop. Gajeel just looked confused as he pulled back his arm and pounded against the invisible barrier while Gray cradled his arm and winced in pain.

"Gray-sama," Juvia yelled in concern for her loved one.

"I'm okay," Gray reassured.

"What happened," asked Levy as she ran up and stopped when she felt where the barrier ended, blocking most of alleyway.

"Damn it," Gray yelled as he let out a burst of ice in attempt to break apart the spell, though it only served to outline the perfect globe he and Gajeel were now in with frost and dropped the temperature in the sphere greatly causing the dissipating ice spell to give the illusion of snowflakes slowly falling.

"Hey," Hiro said with an amused smile and pointed. "Snowglobe."

"Idiot," Gajeel yelled at Gray as he crossed his arms over his chest to try to keep his warmth up. "Don't just go throwing ice magic around like that. You're not the only one stuck in here, you know?!"

"Yeah yeah," Gray responded, brushing him off. After all, he was highly annoyed with his current predicament.

"It's pointless to try to escape my Barrier Prison. It's completely impenetrable and magic resistant so make yourself comfortable boys."

"Don't forget about us," Levy yelled as she was launched over the sphere Gray and Gajeel were trapped in by a spurt of water, courtesy of Juvia. Once airborne she quickly spelled out 'Fire' with her magic and launched a burst of flame at her opponent.

"Trust me," Hiro stated as multiple smaller globes surrounded him. "I haven't forgotten about the two of you. Just leveling the playing field a bit." While the flames grew closer the seemed to divert on their own and was sucked into a vortex one of his spheres created on its own.

"It absorbed my spell," Levy exclaimed as she landed smoothly.

"'Level the playing field?'" Gajeel repeated to Gray as they could only watch the fight.

"He's not an overly confident mage, is he," Gray responded.

"That's rare," Gajeel stated as he began to pointless punch at the barrier's wall.

Levy raised her hands to make another attack but switched to defense when two spheres appeared on opposite ends of her side suddenly. One shot out a blast of fire while the other, a purplish ray of energy. Extending her arms outward the word 'guard' appeared on both sides of her and blocked the attack just in the nick of time. After the first failed attack the spheres began to circle around her and continued their onslaught as Levy dodged and guarded herself.

"Water Nebula," Juvia shouted as water gushed from her and began to surround Hiro who didn't even make an attempt to dodge. The orb that previously blocked Levy's attack did the same with her and began to draw in the water. Though this time Juvia noticed that a small crack appeared on the sphere.

"That won't work on me," yelled Hiro as he sent another one of his orbs that separated into a number of smaller ones and launched them into Juvia's direction. Juvia stood confidant as the spheres phased through her water body like nothing and impaled into the wall behind her violently.

"And that won't work on Juvia," she stated coolly.

Hiro stared at Juvia momentarily before smiling deviously. "Amazing body you have there."

"Thank you," Juvia responded before pointing below him with a blank face. "Hole."

"Huh?" Hiro looked down and saw that 'hole' was written below him before the ground opened up and he began to fall. He shot a glance toward Levy who held her hands before her in an offensive stance, standing on the shards of his broken spheres.

Another of his spheres appeared below him in an instance and with a gust of air shot him back up and he landed beside the small crater with finesse.

"That was close. I shouldn't- Wait, a trap?" Hiro suddenly realized that on either side of him on the walls the word 'Pillar' was written. Two stone pillars came out of the wall with the intent to crush him between them. "Barrier Shield," Hiro shouted as a magic barrier formed around him, at the same time releasing Gajeel and Gray. The pillars crumbled around him as he remained perfectly safe in his barrier.

"Good job Levy," praised Juvia.

"He can only have one protective barrier up at a time- Good to know," Levy said with a smirk.

"Now we get to join in the action," Gajeel stated with a confident smirk and transformed his arm into iron.

"About time too. I was starting to feel-"

"Barrier Prison," Hiro yelled suddenly and the two were once again trapped by his spell.

Gray slammed his head against the invisible barrier in annoyance. "Useless…."

"Water Beam" Juvia yelled as she shot a steady stream of high pressured water at Hiro and as with the other times all of it was being sucked into a vortex one of the spheres was creating. Even though none of it was getting through she kept her attack full force.

"I said that won't work on me," Hiro shouted as he sent a sphere forward that began to channel lightning magic.

Juvia eyed the charging orb nervously as lighting hurt Juvia- a lot. She was annoyed that she would have to put her test on pause to get rid of that thing.

"Juvia move," Gray yelled.

After stopping her spell she jumped away quickly as the lightning struck where she was just standing. Now that it was charged up it was shooting out lightning bolts faster than Juvia anticipated. She had to be quick on her feet as she could feel the electric charge of the attacks on her heels. Another orb appeared before her and readied an attack but Juvia was able to decommission it with a quick flick of her water cane. This made her pause just long enough to where Juvia knew the next flash of lightning would hit her. She closed her eyes tightly and prepared herself for the pain she knew would soon come but Levy stepped up with a counter spell that drew the attack.

"Lightning Rod," Levy yelled as she performed her script magic and wrote the word between Juvia and the sphere, drawing the lightning into it before dissipating.

"Thank you," Juvia yelled as she once again sent a force of water at Hiro. Though this time the moment the vortex opened up to draw in the oncoming magic it shattered, not being able to take in anymore magic.

"So that's what you were doing," Gray commented with a smile at her cleverness.

"Levy is rocking this fight," Stated Gajeel with pride.

"There we go," Juvia shouted as she focused her body into a ferocious tidal wave of water that plowed into Hiro, sending him into out into the street. "We've got him now Levy," Juvia said with a smile as she began to run down the alley. Since the wave also took the lighting orb out with it Levy joined Juvia as she ran past, giving her a high five in the process.

"Wait wait wait," Gajeel yelled in annoyance as the two woman ran further off. "They left us…"

"Maybe if we press forward together we can rock it and roll after them," Gray thought out loud as he pressed against the rim.

"Like a hamster ball," Gajeel deadpanned.

Gray sighed as he thought how pathetic they looked. "Yeah… Like a hamster ball."

* * *

Once the girls ran out on the street they found Hiro fully composed and standing with a full set of spheres floating around him. He looked highly agitated but confidant none the less.

"He recovered so quickly," Levy muttered.

"You two are impressive. I'll give you that. But this fight is starting to irritate me so I'm going to have to end things here and take what I came for."

"What you came for," Levy asked suspiciously.

He smiled smugly and pointed in the direction of Juvia. Her eyes went as wide as a bug as she looked around herself, obviously confused before pointing to herself with realization.

"Eh, you came for Juvia?" Juvia blushed and began to think to herself. _"Does he have romantic feelings for Juvia? It wouldn't be the first time someone has resorted to extreme measures to try and gain her affection,' _she thought, thinking of Lyon."_He must really care for Juvia to put out this much effort. But… Juvia only has eyes Gray-sama. Juvia has to make that clear so as to not set him up for disappointment." _Juvia crossed her arms and held her chin high. "Sorry, but Juvia's heart is already spoken for."

Levy slapped her forehead and sighed while Hiro stared at the water mage in confusion. "… What? You know what? I don't care. I've reequipped my magic spheres so I'll just end this fight now."

"Hey Juvia," Levy stated as she saw a few spheres rise up and begin to charge.

"Yeah?"

"There's a lot of water around here," Levy stated as she verbally referred to the nearby waterway.

"Sure is."

"He can resummons those things quickly, can't he?"

"He's pretty fast," she admitted.

Levy smiled and gave Juvia a sideways glance. "But not fast enough."

* * *

Juvia shot her a sideway glance and returned her smile. "Not in the slightest."

Gray and Gajeel was making decent progress down the alley as the coordinated their motions to get the ball moving.

"Stop stepping on my shirt," Gray complained when he noticed his shirt getting caught in Gajeel's dirty boots.

"If you didn't take it off in the first place it wouldn't be stepped on," Gajeel countered. "… Ugh, we're going to have to stop for a bit," he stated as he felt his stomach do a sudden twist.

"Do not get sick while I'm in here!"

Crouching down, Juvia summoned a large amount of magic and when she rose a vast amount of water came hurtling out for the water canal and rushed toward Hiro, taking out the windows and tearing at the fronts of the nearby buildings lining the streets as it went. This attack blew back the orbs that were charging their attacks against them but soon her water magic was beginning to be sucked into the magical vortex Hiro kept around him. They stayed in this deadlock until Juvia's external water supply was starting to run low but just as it was about to dry out the sphere that guarded Hiro from magic split and shattered.

"And just like that, I'll summon another one," he commented as another orb began to manifest. "What's this," he questioned as he saw an object coming at him, riding along in the waning water surge. It was a piece of concrete that Juvia knocked up while conjuring her small tsunami that had the solid script mage's magic written all over it. Literally. "Bomb? Bomb!?" He yelled in a panic as he threw up his arms.

"Barrier Shield!"

* * *

"I'm serious Gajeel if you get sick in here I will kill you," shouted Gray as he was now mostly moving the ball along by himself as Gajeel weakly leaned against the invisible barrier completely caught up in his motion sickness.

Unexpectedly the barrier vanished and the two fell harshly to the ground.

"Thank goodness we stopped," muttered Gajeel with his face planted in the ground.

They then felt a violent explosion that shook the ground and made the buildings shutter. They both jumped to their feet and began to run full speed toward the exit.

"Levy," Gajeel yelled as both he and Gray circled the corner onto the street and watched as the dust began to settle.

They saw both Juvia and Levy standing strong as the stood before Hiro who was crouching in his Barrier Shield. He stood shakily to his feel. He was drenched and had a number of cuts on him from the explosion that made it through before the barrier circled him. He glared at the two women with spite heavy in his eyes before raising an arm.

"Extraction," he muttered before the shield and Hiro disappeared from sight.

"Where did he go," asked Levy, still prepared for a fight.

Gajeel sniffed the air as he walked closer to the girls. "Wherever he is it's not around here. He's gone."

"Aw man, we didn't contribute anything did we," Gray lamented as he joined them as well.

"Gray-sama," Juvia sang happily as she wrapped her arms around him. "Juvia hated being separated from you like that."

"Jeez, do you ever lay off," Gray moaned.

Juvia pushed out her bottom lip and looked up at Gray with tears in her eyes. Gray just smiled and pushed on her bottom lip.

"No pouting."

"You," came a low, furious voice from an elderly man approaching, followed by a few other just as vivid citizens. "You two completely destroyed this street," he yelled as he pointed out all the property damage Juvia and Levy caused in just a few minutes.

Much of the street was flooded and there'd be obvious heavy water damages to the area. The streets were also littered by debris from the surrounding buildings from the combination of both Juvia's wave and Levy's explosion. There was also a good size crater in the middle of the once picturesque street.

"This is- WAS- a historic road and these buildings have been here since the town was founded. And- and you just came and destroyed it!"

Both Juvia and Levy shrunk under the hateful glares of the townspeople and looked incredibly guilty for the damages they just caused the town. The two Fairy Tail women fidgeted while looking all together innocent, fragile, and painfully cute. Many of the townspeople faces obviously softened toward the two remorseful looking bluenettes but the leader did not seem to falter.

"Oh no. I have five daughters and that look lost its power over me a long time ago. We demand that you-"

"Queue to leave," Gajeel stated suddenly as threw a surprised Levy over his shoulder and began to book it out of town.

"Right behind you," shouted Gray as he grabbed Juvia's hand and followed suite.

"Oh Gray-sama!" Juvia exclaimed excitedly.

"Where do you kids think you're going?! I saw your guild marks. I know you're Fairy Tail mages. You're going to pay for this! Do hear me!?"

"We're sorry," both Levy and Juvia shouted in unison as they were toted away by their respected men.

* * *

Hiro appeared at his team's small base located at an undisclosed location in Fiore via his extraction spell. He removed his drenched hat and jacket and tossed it to the ground next to him.

"Damn it," he cursed loudly.

"Potres takes it you being here, looking like that, it didn't go too well with those Fairy Tail mages," questioned Potres who walked up beside him.

"Shove it," Hiro spat. "I wasn't ready for a fight."

"Ah," Potres said as he lightly punched him in the shoulder. "Don't look so down… You'll get them next time," he said awkwardly and unenthusiastically.

"Don't try to cheer me up Potres," Hiro said, turning away with a small blush. "You really suck at it."

"Well, I tried," he shrugged.

"Is Darios awake yet," Hiro asked, changing the subject

Potres sighed. "He woke up for about five minutes to gripe at me for causing the base to shake again but went right back to bed. He's been there since."

Hiro looked in the direction of Dario's room with a worried expression. "It isn't normal to sleep so much."

"Darios isn't normal anymore," he returned matter of fact.

".…"

"Hiro," came a booming voice from Dario's room.

Both Potres and Hiro jumped at the commanding voice and quickly entered the room where Darios slept. The room was dimly lit but with the light straining though the shutters was enough to see clearly. The room was mostly bare beside the elegant bed that lavish bedding where Darios was currently sitting.

He was a larger man. Not fat, but muscular. His arms were thick and toned and looked like they could snap someone like a twig. His face was angular and strong with small beard covering his lower face. His hair was grey and medium length, pulled back in a loose ponytail to stay out of his face. He eyed them with his cold crystal blue eyes as they entered.

"Potres," he asked with a low growl.

"Yes, Master Darios?"

"Did I call for you as well?"

"Ah-"

"I did not," he suddenly yelled out in anger. "If I want you- I'll call for you. Until then I want you to stay out of my sight. Do you understand?"

Potres faces contorted in a frown as the building began to shake mildly. "Yes, Master Darios. Forgive him."

"Forgive me," He corrected. "I don't understand why you talk like an imbecilic. I suppose I really shouldn't think any higher of you. It's to be expected."

"Forgive… me," he repeated back

Hiro frowned and looked away awkwardly, feeling bad for Potres on one hand but not daring to say anything against it. He glanced back in time to see as Potres turn and leave with his fists clenched tightly. The building was still shaking. Ever since they began their search for the Pillars of Magic Darios's patience with him and especially Potres has become hair thin. He didn't know why he harbored such hatred for the earth mage and it wasn't his place to pry. He would just do as he was told. It would be worth it in the end. At least that is hat he kept telling himself.

"You called for me?"

"What happened? You look horrible."

"I had an… unexpected confrontation with one of the targets and her companions," Hiro sighed and continued. "It didn't go well."

"What happened?"

Hiro thought for a moment. Potres obviously didn't fill him in on the details. Though he didn't blame him in the slightest. If he was Potres he would avoid Darios's insatiable wrath towards him at all cost as well.

He began to explain the past few days of how he waited for Juvia Lockster to return to Magnolia and his surprise to see her and her traveling companions turn right around and leave the same night on a mission to find the Pillars of Magic. When he breached that subject Darios become greatly agitated and rose from the bed to pace around the room as he waved Hiro to continue. He carried on to how they received Jose's raw research on the Pillars and concluded with his fight. After he was finished he stood in silence as Darios stared deeply into the ceiling. He didn't want to chance speaking more or move at this point. He could feel the rage and hate seething off of him in pools and the powerful magic that constantly radiated from him seemed more potent than before. Times like this his master didn't feel like Darios at all and he could barely recognize the man in front of him.

"You told them we were watching Juvia," he acknowledged in a quiet voice, almost a whisper.

"At the time I thought I would at least be able to grab her and pull her here with me."

"You're a damn fool. You gave them unneeded insight to our plans. Never revel anything until you've torn victory from your enemy's cold dead hands."

"Yes Master. I was foolish. I'm sorry."

"…Are you certain she's the Elemental Pillar of Water?"

"I'm certain of it. It amazed me how much she reminded me of Potres. A watery, happy, female version of him but… I'm sure. One hundred percent."

"Very well. Leave her be for now. They'll be too on guard. Take that damned Potres and follow the lead we have on the Pillar of Fire for now."

"Yes Master Darios."

"Now leave me... I must rest."


	4. A Quiet Morning

Pillars of Magic

By: Amnesty

The four Fairy Tail mages began to settle into their rented room for the evening at a small inn located near the train station. Since they weren't getting compensation for this mission they decided it would be economical to just get one room and split the cost. Plus, since the enemy has an apparent interest in Juvia they decided it would be best to stick close together- just in case. While Gajeel and Gray were busy preparing their sleeping mats on the floor Levy and Juvia sat on the lone queen size bed, looking over Jose's research journal.

"Have you found anything Levy," Gray asked as he finished up the last touches to his mat.

Levy absently flipped through the pages momentarily before answering. "Uh, sort of? I'm only a quarter the way through though so I may find out more soon. This is defiantly not anything close to light reading and I have to take my time so I don't overlook anything important. Plus, Jose's handwriting sucks. Right now I'm reading a tangent about when the four elements combined in a specific way are able to… Hmmm, amplify isn't a good word for it. It… makes magic more fluid. For example," Levy said with a smile, looking at Gray. "Let's say we have a block of ice to represent magic potential. It's there but static. So according to Jose if you combine the elements of magic together in a particular way you could melt that block of ice into water and make it diverse and usable."

"My magic is pretty diverse and usable," Gray commented.

"Example Gray," Levy pouted. "He pretty much states that without the Elemental Pillars of Magic magic would still be around but unusable. It allows the spirit to reach in and take hold of it. Even now there is some magic that no matter how powerful you are you can't use without using the four elements.

"Ah," said Juvia. "But that does explain some of the experiments he ran with us."

"Experiments," Gajeel asked with a cocked eyebrow. "What kind of experiments."

"You didn't know? It wasn't anything bad," Juvia said as she put a finger to her chin as she remembered past events. "While he was working on building the MK II he would periodically take the Elemental 4 and sit us around different types of lacrima. Some weak, some powerful. He then had us focus on them, sometimes together, sometimes apart and recorded the results. When we were apart nothing typically of interest happened but when we all focused together we were able to get some satisfying results. It felt so nice when we combined our magic like that. You could feel each other's magic coursing through you all at the same time and it made Juvia feel so warm and tingly inside," Juvia exclaimed with a smile as she wrapped her arms around her with a faint blush.

'_Warm and… tingly,' _Gray's inner thoughts repeated in an annoyed huff. _'The only person who should make Juvia feel warm and tingly is me.' _Gray closed his eyes and scolded himself with a tight frown. '_God, I did not just go there.' _

"Gray-sama, are you alright? You look uncomfortable."

"I'm fine. And this is all well and good but how is this information going to help us find the _actual_ elemental pillars?"

"That won't be in there," Gajeel stated. "Jose doesn't believe they're even on this plane because apparently they don't belong here or whatever. So nothing in that book is going to tell us where they're at."

"Than what good is it," Gray growled in frustration.

"This is very useful information Gray," Levy exclaimed. "Darios was after Jose's research for a reason and he has one of the pillars. If we can retrace his process we might be able to do the same."

Gray paced around the room for a bit, deep in thought. "What I want to know is if he has the Pillar of Earth why would he want Juvia? I assume he would also need other elemental mages as well, but why?"

"Maybe he needs elemental mages to activate the pillars," Juvia offered with a shrug.

"Mmmm, I don't think so," Levy stated. "The Pillars of Magic activates magic potential, not the other way around. But, I don't know, something's not adding up."

"Well, whatever the reason it's getting late so I'm going to bed," Gajeel stated as he laid down on his mat and closed his eyes. "I'm sure Levy will figure something out it the morning."

Levy smiled at the confidence Gajeel had in her before turning to Juvia. "Hey, before we go to bed we should go to the bathhouse!"

Juvia frowned a bit at the idea and wrapped her arms around her legs in protest. "Do we have to?"

"Come on, it will be fun. We never get to talk one on one. This is a perfect opportunity," Levy stated as she began to pull on Juvia's arm.

Juvia sighed and let the script mage pull her off the bed. They gathered their things and headed out the door. All the while Juvia was wishing they took the time to find an inn with individual baths.

"Blow something up if you need us," Gajeel joked as they left, catching them sticking out their tongues at him playfully. He didn't really want them going off alone but they were heading somewhere he could not follow… at least not with his morality still in check.

The two women reached the bathhouse and entered the steamy room. After removing their clothes they dipped into warm and inviting water.

"Looks like it just you and me right now," Levy said with a smile as she sank it, letting the water envelope her.

"Thank goodness," Juvia said under her breath. Even though it was just her and Levy she sat uncomfortably with her arms crossing over her chest.

"Eh? I never understood why you are so uncomfortable with your body," Levy commented. If anyone should be self-conscious it should be her, Levy thought. She glanced at Juvia's endowment and then down to her own, less than ideal, breasts and sighed in annoyance. _'Life isn't fair,' _she inwardly groaned.

"Juvia doesn't really know herself. Maybe because she never really used to bathe with others until a few years ago when she joined the guild… No, Juvia doesn't really think that's it… It hard to explain. When Juvia looks at herself in the mirror, without any clothes on, something just looks wrong. Juvia tries to figure out what it is but she can't."

"Ah, self-image issues. It's okay, every girl has them to a degree. You don't have to be ashamed though. You're really pretty."

Juvia smiled to the other girl in thanks before a thought popped in her head. "While were alone, Juvia has to ask," she paused with a devious smirk, unintentionally making Levy nervous. "You and Gajeel-kun."

Levy blushed and looked to the side. "Me and Gajeel what?"

Juvia frowned. "Oh come one. You know exactly what I'm talking about. What's going on between you two?"

"N-Nothing," she replied with her face turning increasingly red.

Juvia's frown deepened as she leaned increasingly close and eyed Levy suspiciously. "Fine. New question. What do you _want_ to happen between you and Gajeel-kun?"

Levy buried her face in hands as she processed the embarrassing question. She stayed like that for a moment, hoping that Juvia would let it drop. Chancing a look in Juvia's direction she found her face even closer, ignoring all personal boundaries and giving a look that demanded an answer.

"Well," Levy began shakingly. "I do like him." At this Juvia smiled brightly. "And… I think he like me." Juvia nodded knowingly. "If he asked me to date him… I would say yes," she said honestly.

Juvia sat back and frowned. "Well that's not going to happen."

Levy felt a jab of pain through her chest. "Huh?"

"If you plan on waiting for Gajeel-kun to make the first move you're going to be waiting a long- long- possibly forever- time."

"Why do you say that," Levy asked sadly.

"It doesn't look like it but Gajeel-kun is actually a very shy person when it comes to relationships. It takes pressure to even get him to branch out to new people so asking a girl out is definitely out of the question. Back when we were in Phantom Lord there was a cute mage name Carla that he liked. And let's just say Gajeel-kun wasn't as charming as he is now."

Levy snorted. "Gajeel's charming," she asked sarcastically.

Juvia gave her friend a sideway smile. "He got you to fall for him, didn't he?"

"…"

"As I was saying. Gajeel-kun wasn't the smoothest of Dragon Slayers and one day after his not so gentle way of fawning after the poor girl he eventually mustered enough courage to ask her out."

"And she turned him down," Levy stated with a sigh.

"Turned him down? You have _really looked _at Gajeel-kun, right? He's intimidating to a huge degree if you don't know him. Of course she said yes, but purely out of fear. She didn't really care for him. Through that fear they dated for almost two months. Gajeel-kun seemed happy enough but that time with him really made Carla a nervous wreck and one day when Gajeel-kun left on a mission she packed her bags, said she couldn't take the stress anymore and left the guild."

"Oh no! Why didn't she say something to him?"

"I honestly think she thought Gajeel-kun would hurt her if she tried. Which he wouldn't have of course," she added quickly.

"Poor Gajeel. He must have been heart broken when he found out…"

"Juvia's certain he was as well. But he didn't show it. He became a bit more 'grrr'," Juvia said with a cute growl noise and making bear claw motions with her hands. "But that was about it."

"So what? He thinks that if we start dating I'd run off too?"

"No, Juvia doesn't think he's afraid you'll run off or anything like that. It's more like he's afraid of you being afraid of him. That's his hold up."

"That's stupid. I'm not afraid of him at all."

"Juvia know that. He even knows that. Doesn't make him any less scared of any slight chance of that happening. That's why you should make your feelings clear and go after him instead. So he knows he won't be unintentionally pressuring you into something you don't really want."

"Should I really be taking love advice from you of all people," Levy said with a sly smile.

Juvia faltered and she pushed away drearily. "Levy… Why would you say something so mean to Juvia?"

After they finished bathing they headed back to their darkened room where the boys were already sleeping. They quietly crept into bed and laid down next to each other, getting comfortable. After a few moments of silence Levy turned to face Juvia and began to whisper softly.

"Hey Juvia. Are you worried?"

"About what," Juvia whispered back.

"About what that Hiro guy said. They're after elemental mages so this won't be the last time they try to capture you."

She scoffed. "Juvia's not worried. Juvia can take care of herself and… Juvia has you guys to protect her too."

"Sure do," Levy agreed with a smile.

The next morning Gajeel awoke before the others and sat up groggily. He let out a loud yawn and stretched out his wide arms. He wasn't sure what time it was but the room was still dark as the sun had yet to rise so it must have been relatively early. He crawled off the mat and began to sluggishly make his way toward the bathroom. While passing the bad that was next to the bathroom door he glanced in the direction of where the girls were sleeping and couldn't help but take note of the stark contrast of their sleeping dispositions. On one hand Juvia slept with poise and a subconscious elegance. Her hair was near perfect and her face looked fresh and peaceful, but on the other hand… Levy was sprawled out across her side of the bed with one leg hanging exposed over the edge and her blankets were in knots. Her mouth was wide opened and you could clearly make out the trail of drool that had been trickling down her chin all night and crusting in her matted hair. She was a hard sleeper. It was cute.

Gajeel shook his head in amusement over the two bluenettes before his eyes settled on Jose's research journal that was sitting on the nightstand nearest to Levy. He curiously picked it up and began to leaf through it. This kind of research wasn't really his forte but he decided that it would be good to have some sort of working knowledge about what was in this book so he put it under his arm and took it with him to the bathroom. Once in front of the bathroom sink he opened the book to a random section and began to read while he readied his toothbrush and began to brush his teeth. After a little bit he heard the bathroom door creek open to reveal a groggy Levy rubbing her eyes and stifling a yawn. Her eyes snapped opened and her face reddened when she saw who was currently occupying the bathroom.

"Sorry, I didn't realize someone was in her," Levy said meekly as she began to close the door. She stopped the door mid-swing and quickly opened the door again when she saw Gajeel haphazardly holding the book over the wet sink.

"Gajeel," Levy chided in annoyance. "Don't brush your teeth over the book. You're going to get toothpaste and spit all in it."

Gajeel cocked an eyebrow and responded with his toothbrush still in his foaming mouth. "hinhn mn peniun?"

Levy sighed. "I have no clue what you just said but it was likely some kind of snarky comment so just hand me over the book before you ruin it," she said as she began to reach for the valuable research journal. Gajeel smiled as he pulled the book away just as she was about the grab it. "Gajeel, I'm serious. You'll smudge all the words," she growled with her hands on her hips.

They had a small stare off before Levy suddenly lunged at the hand Gajeel was using to hold the book. Gajeel swiftly stretched his arm to the side making Levy grab at nothing but air. She quickly readjusted her trajectory and went in for the book again but Gajeel was, once again, faster and this time lifted the book high over his head, well out of her reach. Levy uselessly tried to jump up and seize the book but her height disadvantage proved it impossible. Gajeel looked down with the best cocky grin he could manage, due to the toothbrush still in his mouth as she tried to retrieve the journal from him.

"That's not fair," Levy said as she gave him her best pouty face. This always worked on Jet and Droy without fail.

As Levy expected Gajeel's smirk faltered, replaced by a look of guilt. He slowly lowered the book back down. Levy smiled as the book finally came back into arms reach and went out to grasp it, but right before she could do so Gajeel yanked it back up in the air, full smirk plastered once again on his annoying face.

"Dang it Gajeel," Levy shouted and then decided, in the heat of the moment, to kick up her game a notch.

Suddenly she jumped onto Gajeel and began to recklessly climb up his torso to get the book away. Not expecting this in the slightest Gajeel stumbled back and almost spit out his toothpaste in the process due to the shock. He tried to push her away with his free hand and at the same time trying to support her so she wouldn't fall and hurt herself, but Levy was tenacious and had him in an awkward position. The two mages were creating quite a ruckus but froze immediately when they heard someone coughing in the doorway of the bathroom to get their attention. They turned to see a near naked Gray standing right outside the open door and a fawning Juvia still sitting on the bed with a clear view of the scene, no doubt had been watching the scuffle for a while now. Levy scrambled down and flattened her oversized t-shirt she wore to sleep down.

"Uh, Er's ur ugk ack," Gajeel said as he handed her the book they were battling it out over seconds ago.

"Thank you Gajeel," Levy said as she took the offered book without a glance and pushed through Gray to try and leave the bathroom.

"Mrm, ait," Gajeel awkwardly said as he bent over the sink and spat out his toothpaste. Levy turned curiously and waited for Gajeel to speak.

"I can't remember exactly where but near the mid back area there's a list of names. If Darios is working off the same list it might give us an idea of where we can start next."

Levy's interest perked and she began to flip through the back of the book until she found the list of names and the short dossier on key people that stood out to Jose. "Perfect! This really is a good lead. I wouldn't have gotten to this section until much later. Thanks Gajeel," she said as she gave him a genuine smile.

Gajeel returned the smile and watched as Levy left with the book and Gray closing the door behind them, allowing Gajeel to finish his morning routine.

After everyone finished getting ready for the day they not-so-patiently waited around the room while Levy transferred some information to her notebook on the record of people that were listed in the journal. After cross checking her information she turned to the group to relay the info.

"Okay, this is what we have to go on. I wrote down in four columns all the names Jose has gathered in their relevant element. I think we should first focus on the fire and wind category since we know they have their sights set on Juvia for water and by the sounds of it they already have someone for the earth element."

"Gajeel-kun. We should contact Totomaru and the others to make sure they are alright," Juvia stated as she turned to her close friend.

"Way ahead of you. While you two were taking a bath last night I contacted them through the lacrima they had in the lobby," he said, leaving out the fact he wanted to be near where the bathhouse was located. Just in case. "Totomaru and Aria are fine. I couldn't get in hold of Sol but his wife said he was away on business and would back in a few days. She did speak to him earlier that day though so we know he wasn't kidnapped."

"Have they noticed anyone odd poking around," Gray asked.

"Totomaru hasn't, but Aria did say someone came and asked him some odd questions a couple of months ago. Something about "scouting" but in the end said he wasn't what they were looking for and that was the end of that. He couldn't remember what the person looked like he was pretty sure he didn't match the description of the person we ran into yesterday."

"Could have been someone else working for Darios," Juvia reasoned.

Gray took the list and began to read over some of the names. "This information is outdated. Some of these locations aren't even in Fiore and who knows how many, if any, are even still where they're listed."

"But it's a start," Levy reassured. "Which is more than what we had yesterday."

"Levy's right Gray-sama," Juvia agreed enthusiastically. "We can do a lot with this information."

"Yeah Gray, stop being such a downer," Gajeel stated with a mischievous smile.

Gray frowned in annoyance as he started to get the feeling that he was getting ganged up on. "I'm not being a downer. I'm just staying that the list is out dated. Which it is," he said defensively.

Levy crossed her arms. "Sounds like pessimistic talk to me Gray. You need to start looking at things with the glass half full."

Beside Levy Gray noticed Gajeel nodding in agreement.

"Come on guys. Stop picking on Juvia's Gray-sama. He's just trying to be realistic," Juvia cooed as she wrapped her arms around Gray in a loving embrace, which he tried to pull away from in half-hearted annoyance. At least Juvia would always be on his side, Gray thought as Juvia tightened her grip and began to nuzzle her head against his shoulder. "Even if he is being a downer about it," she added with a deceivingly soft smile.

"Oh, get off of me Juvia," Gray said as he successfully pried her away. Juvia took a few steps back and joined the others as they chuckled and Gray's expense. "You three… are mean when you get together."

"I'm sorry," Levy apologized. "But in all seriousness. I'm really starting to get hungry and I saw a cute little café a block down that looks really good," she looked at Gajeel. "Wanna go check it out?"

Juvia's eyes lit up as her mind started to plot. "That's a great idea Levy! You and Gajeel-kun can go grab us some seats and start while Gray-sama and Juvia contacts Fairy Tail to check in with Master."

Gajeel raised an eyebrow at his friend's enthusiasm, though be it not an uncommon occurrence. "We can contact Master after breakfast, or before. There's no reason we can't all go together."

"No, it's fine," Juvia continued as she began, moving closer to Levy to not-so-gently elbow her to try and pass over her motivation.

A blush began to creep onto Levy's face as she remembered last night's conversation in the bathhouse and could clearly read Juvia's intentions for the two. Levy swiveled her fingers together shyly and decided to go along with it. "I, um, agree with Juvia. Gajeel and I can grab a table and you can join us when you're done."

Gajeel shook his head in amusement. "You do realize this is just a lame attempt for her to get some alone time with her stripper, right?"

Juvia paused and stared at Gajeel a moment in thought. "Yes, that is exactly what Juvia is doing," she fibbed, though not minding the end result in the slightest.

"I'm okay with that," Gray stated.

"Oh, Gray-sama," Juvia exclaimed in joy. "You want to spend alone time with Juvia too?"

"Not that part," he added quickly. "But I'd like to get calling Master out of the way so after we eat we can just head out."

Juvia's face fell as she clutched her chest in sorrow. "Gray-sama's so cruel. He got Juvia excited for nothing…."

"I guess it's settled then," Gajeel stated as he grabbed his travel bag. "Let's go Shrimp. Hopefully this café of yours has some outside seating."

Levy grabbed her things as well and followed Gajeel to the door. Full blush still intact. "I'm pretty sure they do. I saw some tables outside," she said as they left the room.

The moment Gray and Juvia was left alone her face lit up and she gravitated toward Gray, who eyed her warily. "It looks like it's just us Gray-sama. We should make the most of this opportunity."

"Or, we could just go to the lobby, make our call and then meet Levy and Gajeel for breakfast. Like we planned."

Juvia beamed, took hold of Gray's arm and began to lead him out of the room. "Anywhere Juvia goes with Gray-sama is heaven to Juvia!"

Gray held an uncomfortable expression on his face but allowed Juvia to walk with him the way she was. One thing he had accepted with his years with the water mage was that it was just easier to roll with some of her eccentrics than risking a scene. Soon Juvia and Gray reached the lobby and gained access to the communication lacrima. Gray was surprised that such an inn in such a small town would have one but he wasn't about to complain. After prying Juvia off his arm he powered it up and channeled Fairy Tail. As expected Mira was the one to answer their call with a cheerful smile on the image that appeared.

"Gray, Juvia! I was wondering about the two of you. How did everything with Jose go?"

"A lot better than expectedly actually. Having Gajeel and Juvia really did help the process. Sorry to be short but I actually do need to speak to Master. Is he there?"

"Yes, I'll go fetch him for you," she replied with a wink.

"Thanks," Gray said as Mira went out of sight and after a few minutes Markova's image appeared.

"Gray, excellent. How is your mission going?"

"We're making good progress and we have Jose's research journal. Levy's working though it to try and figure out what Darios is up to. We do have some leads. Apparently Darios is trying to collect four people with corresponding elemental magic."

"How do you know this?"

"We ran into someone who works for him. They tried to take Juvia," Gray spat with growing anger.

Markova paused in silence before replying. "That's troubling. That must have been what the Goddess Althena meant by them having the Pillar of Earth."

"That's what we were thinking too. We found a list of likely targets in Jose's journal. We checked with the other former members of the Elemental 4 and they're all fine so we're going to see about the others listed."

"That does sound like a good place to start," he agreed. "Keep on it Gray and let me know if you need anything. And Juvia."

"Yes," Juvia responded.

"I want you to keep someone with you at all times. Do you understand?"

"Of course," she confirmed. Smiling as in her mind it equaled keeping Gray with her at all times.

"It sounds like you have everything under control. Good job. I'm proud of all of you."

"Thank you," Gray said with a quick nod.

Markova nodded back and then disconnected.

Gray turned to Juvia. "Alright, are you ready to meet Gajeel and Levy for breakfast?"

"Ah, Juvia isn't all that hungry yet. Can we take a short walk before we meet with them?"

Gray thought for a moment. "I suppose a quick walk around the block wouldn't hurt anything. And we can always get breakfast to go so they don't have to wait for us."

Juvia smiled brightly at Gray's response and allowed him to lead the way out of the inn with her quickly taking the opportunity to happily wrapped herself around his arm, thankful that he wasn't pulling away like he did most days.

As they were strolling along Juvia allowed her mind to transverse from her Gray centered fantasies over to Gajeel and Levy. It's true that she would take any and every opportunity to spend more time with just her Gray-sama but her ulterior motive was to give Levy some time alone with Gajeel-kun. She began to swoon back and forth with the thought of a romantic breakfast scene between her best friend and Levy. Her face then became serious and determined as she began to pump her fist up in down, mentally encouraging Levy to take this time to confess her feelings. Then her expression switched to a grim disposition at the thought of Gajeel brushing off her feelings and prayed that Gajeel would be open to any advances and not be a lame jerk about it. She then settled that she just had to put faith in her friends and that they would be able to work out their obvious feelings for each other. Hopefully today!

Her wondering mind returned to much more important matters: that she was currently taking such a wonderful walk with Gray-sama! She closed her eyes and smiled blissfully, leaning in closer to Gray and sighed contently, soaking in each second. Completely lost in her own world she completely missed the fact that Gray was currently watching her through the corner of his eye as she went through her odd changes of over exaggerated expressions but was now smiling softly at the sight of her leaning against him peacefully.

~*~A Little While Ago With Gajeel and Levy~*~

Gajeel walked along the cobblestone street silently, looming over the solid script mage who was walking slightly behind him with her head down and shoulder's hunched. She was acting… odd to say the least. Normally they had no problem holding a conversation together but right now every time he tried to initiate something she just brushed him off with an awkward 'hum'. Was she mad at him? He did tease her earlier this morning but she's taken, and given, a lot worse. Grumbling in annoyance he slowed down his pace to match Levy's, which was unbearably slow to him. Should he apologize? Girls liked that, right?

"So… Uh, sorry about… Earlier today," he said as he began to rub the back of his neck awkwardly.

Levy's head popped up a little bit, but not enough where he could really see her face. "Huh? Oh, right. That's fine," she replied quietly.

"Good… good," he drawled out but inwardly he was shouting _'What the hell!" _

On her part Levy began to fidget with her hands nervously.

_'Come on Levy. You can do this,' _she reassured herself mentally._ 'Just tell him you like him and want to be with him. Then you'll be done. Just. Tell. Him.' _

Levy placed her fist over her chest and took a deep breath to try and calm her pounding heart. She took the chance to glance up at him. He was currently looking ahead with an annoyed expression on his face. Even so, she couldn't help but notice about how handsome he looked today. Very, very, unbelievably handsome. She marveled at how open Juvia could be with her feelings towards Gray, even though he rebuffed them more often than not. This was hard. She had come up with dozens of possible confessions in her head but none of them seemed adequate for him. You think that after all the romance novels she has read she would be better at this….

The two had finally reached the café Levy spoke of and took a seat at one of the outside tables. A waitress quickly introduced herself, gave them their menus, and took their drink orders. After the waitress left Levy noticed the two of them were completely alone outside. She nodded to herself that this was a good place to tell him her feelings. She took a deep breath and looked at Gajeel who was watching her curiously.

"Gajeel," she began, feeling the blood rush to her cheeks.

"Yeah?"

"Uh… We've known each other for a while now…"

Gajeel nodded expectantly, wondering where she was going with this. "Yeah?"

"And I've really enjoyed our times together. I mean… I _really _enjoy spending time with you."

Gajeel smiled. "I like spending time with you too."

Levy returned his smile, feeling a bit more confidant. "I'm glad you feel the same way. Gajeel… I just wanted to tell you that I-"

"Oh hey, look," Gajeel said as he stood from his seat and pointed down the road. "It's Lily!"

Levy almost fell out of her chair as the moment was completely ruined and her confession cut short. She turned to where Gajeel was pointing and sure enough, the little Exceed was crossing the road a little ways down the street. Part of her was happy to see her friend but a larger portion was cursing his very existence.

"Oi, Lily," Gajeel shouted. Lily turned and immediately caught sight of the Dragon Slayer and changed directions to meet with them.

"Hey," Lily greeted as he fist bumped Gajeel and nodded to Levy. He then stood in the seat to between the two.

"Lily, not that I'm glad to see you," Levy said, only slightly lying. "But what are you doing here?" _'Bad timing Lily! You couldn't have showed up five minutes later,' _she cried out inside her head.

"Well, after I got back from helping out the Exceed community I found Gajeel's note telling me where he was going and after Master filled me in I started heading out in this direction. I actually didn't expect to find you guys so quickly."

"I'm glad you could make it." Gajeel then turned to the open door to the café where the waitress was just now walking through with their ordered drinks. "Hey," he yelled, forgetting her name. "Waitress lady, I also need a kiwi drink for my cat."

"Please," Levy muttered, trying to keep herself from burying her head in the table.

"Please," Gajeel quickly added.

Gajeel and Lily than began to catch up with each other about what happened in their couple of weeks apart. Levy was only partially listening, still frazzled by all the events of this morning. She cupped her face in her hand and began to sip slowly on her lemon-water. Emotionally spent. It wasn't long after that Gray and Juvia showed up, walking up from the wrong direction of the inn, feet apart. Juvia looked annoyed at their distance.

"Hey Lily," Gray greeted. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Hey," Lily greeted back.

Juvia waved at Lily but quickly turned her gaze toward Levy with hopefully eyes. Levy only shook her head negatively to answer her unspoken question. Sighing in disappointment, Juvia took a seat at the table next to Gray as he pulled up a chair.

The rest of the morning was spent in peace as the finished their breakfast. They guys talked with each other casually, either completely oblivious or afraid to address the sour dispositions of their female companions.

* * *

End notes:

I just had to add Lily. I honestly forgot about him when I first started this jazz and realized he would totally be there. I love Lily. Gajeel is my favorite character (Juvia is a barely noticeable difference in second) so Lily is my favorite Exceed. But it all worked out in the end for me to be able to use him as a mood breaker plot device.

Sorry for the lack of story plot. This feels fillerish. But I love the idea of Gajeel and Levy innocently flirting over a book! I'm not sure I'm happy with the overall quality but I just needed to get something out or I never would ,

Hope you enjoyed!


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